About Me

I was previously a constitutional law and civil rights litigator and am now a journalist. I am the author of three New York Times bestselling books -- "How Would a Patriot Act" (a critique of Bush executive power theories), "Tragic Legacy" (documenting the Bush legacy), and With Liberty and Justice for Some (critiquing America's two-tiered justice system and the collapse of the rule of law for its political and financial elites). My fifth book - No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA and the US Surveillance State - will be released on April 29, 2014 by Holt/Metropolitan.

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Tuesday, December 19, 2006

The right wing blogosphere's tender embrace of Tom DeLay.

By Blue Texan -- Everything you need to know about how morally corrupt, intellectually bankrupt, and divorced from reality the conservative movement is today was on display last week when Tom "The Hammer" DeLay launched his new blog.

One of the links, to Dr. Helen aka "Mrs. Mobius Dick," was melodramatically titled, "The Scarlet R" and began by attacking the mean, nasty "liberal" anonymous posters who had the gall to post insults on The Hammer's blog. She then quoted uncritically this passage from DeLay's interview at Right Wing News.

Quoth The Hammer,

When was the last time the Republicans or conservatives attacked the left for their outrageous comments or outrageous activities? We don't attack.

Apparently, neither Mrs. Dick or Right Wing News saw nothing at all ridiculous or surreal about Tom "The Hammer" DeLay claiming that Republicans don't attack, because Mrs. Dick wistfully added,

I am beginning to see that while it is admirable to hold facts and substance above attacking one's opponents views, it doesn't work...Maybe speaking up and not slinking around in shame would be a better strategy.

Indeed, Mrs. Dick, indeed! Conservatives like "The Hammer" should stop being such shrinking daisies, build some sort of media presence and get on offense for a change. Because, gosh darn it, it's time they stopped getting pushed around!

Maybe what conservatives need is a few dozen nationally-syndicated radio shows, a global 24-hour news network, some newspapers, blogs, maybe even some endowed think tanks at major universities. That way, good and honest conservatives could finally rebut those awful John Kerrys, Dick Durbins, Howard Deans, the Jimmy Carters, Michael J. Foxes and Barbara Streisands, the Dixie Chicks, the Cindy Sheehans and the Bill Mahers, the Dan Rathers, the 9/11 Widows, and the gay Teletubbies of the world, who keep annoyingly getting away with saying whatever they want, whenever they want, without being challenged by anyone.

Mrs. Dick bravely adds,

It seems like those with views other than liberal must wear the Scarlet R. Well, I will not hide any longer. If people want to call me a Republican, I will wear the label with pride with the R proudly displayed on my forehead whether it really fits or not, just to show my solidarity with those who are oppressed by such labels.

Let's just ignore the use of the word "oppressed" because it's so laughable. How astonishing that Mrs. Dick does not grasp the simple, basic, cause-and-effect relationship between the electorate's rejection of Republicans and the person she just lovingly cited, who led the GOP for the past decade, Tom DeLay.

It's also more than a little amusing that the right wing blogs who asked "The Hammer" to analyze why the GOP lost in November didn't happen to notice that exit polls indicated that corruption was a key factor, and that Tom DeLay was at the center of that corruption.

If the conservative base thinks really believes they lost because they weren't enough like Tom DeLay, I'm looking very forward to 2008.